Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-23
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Michael Collins (II), Cork South-West

I thank the Minister. The school transport scheme has been reviewed and promises have been made yet children are still being left behind. This is the major issue we have. How can a child have no transport while a bus passes their door with ten empty seats? Why are priority concessionary pupils receiving no apparent priority? When will the nearest school restriction, and this is a very serious question on which the Government has promised but not delivered, be changed? Have the promised 100,000 additional places been delivered? The Minister has said that 60,000 or 70,000 have. When will extra buses be rolled out for children who need to go to school?
We also need a fair electronic system to detect non-use and to reallocate seats that are persistently unused to children who desperately need them. Basically it should be a case of use it or lose it. These are children trying to get to school. They are not numbers on a spreadsheet. If Bus Éireann and the Department cannot administer the scheme properly and make sensible use of empty seats, is it time to hand its administration to somebody who can?

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-23/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:49+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-23